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On Jan. 5, 2012, Paul Valin called the police to report he'd found a backpack containing what he believed to be meth-making equipment. That simple act of good citizenship landed his and wife Cindy's house on the National Clandestine Laboratory Register, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency's list of meth labs.

The NCLR "contains addresses of some locations where law enforcement agencies reported they found chemicals or other items that indicated the presence of either clandestine drug laboratories or dumpsites."

The fact that Valin found the backpack more than 15 miles from his house isn't the sort of thing the DEA or any other division of the Department of Justice would have checked on before publishing his address on the NCLR.

According to the NCLR website: "In most cases ... the Department has not verified the entry and does not guarantee its accuracy....The Department does not accept responsibility or liability for damages of any kind resulting from reliance on an entry".

Unlike the DOJ, Paul Valin is willing to accept responsibility. And that's how his trouble started.

Valin sent an email to the DEA explaining the facts of his case and asking that his address be removed from the NCLR. The reply he received three weeks later was not encouraging.

According to the email, the only way to be removed from the NCLR is to have the law enforcement agency that originally submitted the address request it be removed or have ?the local health agency? send an email to the DEA stating the property is free from any contamination associated with meth production.